Is recruitment really that hard?

I go to a semi-target school (target for good mm and lower tier bb), and almost everyone I know who wanted to do IB has gotten at least some offers. Those who haven’t gotten offers have gotten superdays. I know it’s a shitshow, but can anyone explain how people from real target schools who post on this form aren’t getting offers?

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I honestly think it boils down to the quality of candidates recruiting who you find at different schools. The target school kids who end up without offers are those who think an IB internship will simply end up in their hands. Obviously a portion of target kids have put in the work to get there and will continue doing so for an offer. However, banks just don’t want to offer target kids who don’t stand out from the other 300 pretentious d bags recruiting from Wharton.

On the other hand, candidates from semi or non target schools who you find in the process have often put in much more work to be there in terms of networking and interview prep. For banks who care about more than just school name, the non target who nails every technical and has a better story is getting the offer over the target kid who grew up in Greenwich.

 

^ this. I go to a target, I’m a woman and all my friends are women. People just assume they deserve an IB internship and get shocked when, like college apps, it doesn’t happen like that. All of my friends are cracked to the point where they absolutely would not have “needed” a diversity program to get hired. The biggest disservice you can do to yourself is assuming whatever characteristic you have (target, diversity, whatever) will get you in. The only characteristic that will 100% get you is in nepo connections, and I’d say 60% of target IB kids have them.

 

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